Pirates Insider Podcast, Episode 29 (6/25 vs. Mariners/midseason)

The Pirates reached the midpoint of their season with a 5-1 victory over the Mariners Thursday at PNC Park. Bubba Chandler was solid. Henry Davis homered among his two hits. How do those storylines fold into the rest of the season? Also, what are some other questions the Pirates must consider in the second half? Jason Mackey breaks it all down here.

Transcript

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Good morning, Pirates fans. This is the Pirates Insider Podcast. I am your host, Jason Mackey, and greetings from the midpoint of the Pirates season. Victory over the Seattle Mariners yesterday by a five to one score brought the Pirates into the midpoint at 41 and 40. It's the first time they've been over 500 since 2015. And so I want to talk a little bit about what happened yesterday because I think it's notable, but more so what things look like here halfway through. And what are some key questions the Pirates face as we look at the second set of 81 games in this season? Thanks so much for finding us, by the way. Appreciate it. A little later today, we had a nice family day at PNC Park yesterday. But picking things up with the Pirates at the midpoint, they're in fourth place in the National League Central. They trailed the Milwaukee Brewers by 9.5 games. They're two and a half games out of a wildcard spot. Again, you can look at what has happened over the first 81 games and say, man, there's some missed opportunities. At the same time, they're not buried. They're not out of it. If you want to be within striking condition striking distance of a playoff spot, the Pirates are there. To go through a few things that we saw yesterday and talk about their greater applicability. Bubba Chandler started. I liked what he did again. Chandler has been over those past four starts, been very good. Yesterday, five and a third, one earned run, five hits, three walks, four strikeouts. The biggest difference for him, of course, throwing strikes. He has done that most recently over his past four starts. Bubba's been excellent. That dates back to that time against the Atlanta Braves. That was June 7th, I believe, and a 282 ERA in that span, eight walks, 18 strikeouts. It's worked 22 plus innings. Whatever happened there, it seemed to jiggle something loose with Bubba, and there's a lot more confidence. Fastball yesterday topped out at 101.4, and he just didn't have a spin stuff, but was able to figure it out. And I thought it was a great job by Bubba Chandler. When I look at this starting rotation, I still think there's meat on the bone. I think it's been good. The expectation was for it to be great. Starting pitcher, ERA this season, 390. That's a tick above where it was last year. It ranks ninth in Major League Baseball. That's one of the big questions that I have for the second half. What happens with this group? Bubba Chandler can be at the forefront of it. Certainly not nitpicking, but did the Pirates get as much as they expect out of Mitch Keller? That would be a no. That fifth spot, it was Carmen Majinski, rotates to Jared Jones. Did they get enough out of that? Probably not. I'm not going to ask for any more than they got out of Braxton Ashcraft. That's been fantastic. Same with Paul Skeens. I think that group has another level, though. And I think the Pirates need that to compete. Right now their team ERA is 4.08. That's 13th in Major League Baseball. That's a regression from last year, and it needs to be better. So that's certainly something I'm looking at for the second half of the season. All right, a second storyline to come out of here, and it dovetails nicely into a question I have for the second half, is Henry Davis. Henry Davis had been two for 17 in June and had a pretty solid game at a pair of hits, stole a base, home run, double. Home run came in the third inning. I really like the swing from Davis, too, by the way. Gets a one-two fastball, it's kind of middle away. And Henry did exactly what he's been working on, what he should be doing. Takes it to right center field, goes 390, 102 off the bat. We've talked with him about letting the ball travel, letting it get deep, not trying to pull everything. Exactly what you want to see. So what happens though? One of the big questions I have, once again, for the second half of the season, how does the Pirates catching position work? I don't know. I mean, right now I'm playing Andy Rodriguez because he has just been solid. There's no reason. He's hit so much. I'm not taking him out of the lineup right now. If you have well, okay. Here's how I would split it up, is the point I'm trying to make, is I actually think it's in a pretty good position. If you think of it, if you have five games, you're not gonna play Andy for four and Henry for one. And I'm I'm picking five because of the starting rotation, but I mean you're not gonna have Henry Davis play exclusively for for Paul Skeens. I mean, think of the injury stuff that Andy's had the past couple of years. I'm not sure that's the smartest deployment. So, what do you do? You split it up. If you have five games, you're not gonna go two and three, you're not gonna play Davis more than Andy right now. It's basically become a timeshare. And you need to figure out, I think Andy has developed a nice little rapport with Braxton Ashcraft. We saw that in his last start. So there's one. You've got Davis and Skeens, and then you figure it out from there. I don't know. If you want Bubba Chandler and Henry Davis to work together, that can make sense. And then you have Andy with Mitch Keller and Andy with Jared Jones. Great. We've solved the problem. But the catching position is actually not as bad as I think a lot of people might believe it to be. If you look at, and I'm gonna do this, I actually didn't do it ahead of time, but if you sort where teams are at via splits on MLB.com, you can just look at teams hitting by catchers. The Pirates actually aren't in that bad of a spot. Their catchers, believe it or not, have a 709 OPS. That's 12th in Major League Baseball. But where Andy continues to go, if this gets hot for Henry, it certainly uh warrants some consideration, some questions, very intriguing for me. Alright, something that happened also yesterday that I think has some applicability once again is the bullpen. This group, it's the biggest question mark right now. Pirates relievers have a 432 ERA, that's 18th in Major League Baseball. In June, that number sits at 5.06, that's 23rd. Obviously, not very good. However, over the last 14 games, that number is 354. And in the Mariner Series, it was the first time all season the Pirates bullpen did not allow a run. They covered 9 and a third innings. Yesterday we saw Evan Sisk, Johan Ramirez, Mason Montgomery, and Gregory Soto get the job done. I'm not giving up hope on this group. It's been better. It really has. Are they all the way out of the woods? Of course not. They have 16 blown saves. Only four teams in Major League Baseball have more. It absolutely has to improve. But I've liked what I've seen from Isaac Matson. Dennis Santana seems to be turning a corner if used appropriately. I really like Johan Ramirez in an early multi-inning fireman type role. Probably don't want him in the 7th, 8th, or 9th, but that's okay. Evan Sisk has been a pleasant surprise. Mason Montgomery has been good. Gregory Soto has been good. Carmen Majinski is kind of a special deployment tool. Don't have an issue there. So kind of curious where the bullpen goes. It was good yesterday. It was good in the Mariner Series. It's obviously experienced a lot of turbulence this season, but the Pirates need to get that figured out. Another newsworthy piece from yesterday, and a question that I have for the rest of the season: what happens with Connor Griffin and what sort of impact do we see from O'Neill Cruz and Connor Griffin? I do think we'll see Connor Griffin on the weekend. Kind of curious when we get to the park today whether he's there. He only played seven innings in his rehab assignment on Wednesday. Wouldn't surprise me if they tried to get him nine. It's only El Toona, a couple hours away. You can get him over there, get him through one more game, and then maybe bring him back. But I do leave out hope that he's just feeling that good. That, you know, experiencing no issues, you know, doing everything full capacity, why bother? So it's a possibility. I think it's probably about a 50-50 shot when we get to the ballpark today. What happens with Connor Griffin? O'Neal Cruz, a couple weeks behind, but still the bones in his hand have been healing up. He's doing more and more baseball activities. Just what impact do those guys have? I mean, you can look right now at the Pirates lineup. And yesterday you go Mangum, Lau, Reynolds, Gonzalez, O'Hearn, Valdez, Callahan, Triolo, Davis. Like we're going to play replace Triolo theoretically with Connor Griffin. You put Jared Triolo in a much better spot. Mangum probably goes to an outfield depth spot. He becomes a really good fourth outfielder. Great, as Merlin Valdez probably goes down to AAA. Don't know what happens with Tyler Callahan. But either way, I mean, think about how much better you're making your lineup with those two guys in it. I guess I'm sitting here proving a point that I don't need to prove, but very curious to see what happens with those guys when they get them back and how what it means for the lineup. But, you know, that being said, I went through this morning and looked at some numbers and wanted to get like the midpoint check of where the Pirates are at offensively. Just listen to some of this stuff. Runs, 409, third in Major League Baseball. Hits, 720, first in Major League Baseball. Stolen base is 74, 6th. Not trying to throw too many numbers at you, but OPS 746 third. Slugging percentage, 411, 7th. This is a Pirates offense that was terrible last year. And they're top seven, top five in pretty much every offensive category. So yes, getting Cruz, getting Griffin back, it matters, but this group has been excellent so far. Really like them. There's one number that I jotted down as we sort of take a temperature at the midpoint that concerns me, and that's their number against left-handed pitching. I think that's a that's something they're gonna have to answer over the second half of the year. Pirates have a 681 OPS against lefties. That's 22nd in Major League Baseball. If there's a kryptonite for this group, it's against left-handed pitching. It's righties, Pirates have a 770 OPS. That's second in Major League Baseball. But, you know, questions they need to answer hitting left-handed pitching, especially left-handed starters. So just to recap, I know I've thrown a lot of stuff at you. I try to fit a lot of stuff into a short podcast, and maybe that's not the greatest idea on my part, but questions they need to answer. What happens with the catching situation? Does it continue? Were they in a good spot with Andy Rodriguez and Henry Davis? Can the bullpen continue some of the momentum that's built over the past 14 days? That's been the biggest group. Obviously, that folds into the trade deadline. Who are they going to get? I was asked on the radio last night who do I like besides a roll as Chapman? Garrett Whitlock was a name that I threw out there. He's the eighth inning guy for Boston. I think he could be attainable. Can the starting pitchers find another gear? It's been good. It needs to be great. I think there's some meat left on the bone there. What happens with O'Neal Cruz and Connor Griffin? The last question that I have coming out of the 81 game mark, Marcelo Zuna. It's a big one in where this goes. And I don't have a magic answer, but I do think it's a topical thing. We're talking about a player who is making $12 million. They're counting on to do a lot, but the playing time is going to diminish very quickly if it hasn't already. I mean, he's played just eight games in June. So yeah, I mean, you could say that you could say the playing time is gone, but with Griffin coming back, they're going to want DH reps. I think Brian Reynolds has had the type of season he's had because those have been available to him. You're going to try to get those reps for Ryan O'Hearn, for Brandon Lau. There's a little bit of a reprieve with Spencer Horwitz being on the IL, but not too much. Ozuna needs to hit. I think you can ride this out for a little bit longer, but at some point, especially with Cruz and Griffin coming back, you're going to get to a point where you need the roster spot. And it just doesn't make sense to put a guy who is a right-handed hitter, who doesn't play the field, who doesn't add any sort of base stealing, late game situational stuff, if he's not hitting. His job is to hit. And it's been better in June. I'll give him that. 296 average in June, 752 OPS. But if you look a bit a little bit deeper, it's kind of propped up by singles. Not that you have to start somewhere, but like there's one extra base hitting there, 29 plate appearances, nine strikeouts. So there's a little bit of a flicker. Can that turn into something more? We'll see. But a big question for me what happens to Marcelo Zuna in the second half. All right, hope you enjoyed this. I will be back tomorrow with another one of these. Maybe late tonight. We'll see how the game goes. Also, make sure you listen to Bucko talk on Saturday morning on 93 7 The Fan. I'll be on there from 9 to 11. This is the Pirates Insider Podcast. I'm Jason Mackey. Thank you so much for listening.